(Disclaimer: This work is a fanfiction of the story RWBY. I do not own RWBY. RWBY is the property of Roosterteeth. I make no money off of this story and do not intend to. Also, I have bumped up the ages of all students to university age to not piss off the law. Just think of the Huntsman academies as Universities full of people fresh out of High school. So, therefor, everyone in this story is at least eighteen years and over. That includes Ruby Rose herself, who would have been in her senior year of combat school, a High school equivalent. Which all makes sense since they are training to kill monsters and all that.

Enter The Grey Man

Gray Farran hopped off the bus on Orchard Valley Road. Being one of the main roads into Vale it was quite busy, day or night. But even for a city the size of Vale the outskirts did seem a little less traveled at this time.

It was the evening when Gray made it into town. The sun had set behind the city’s skyline as the bus had gotten through the wall surrounding Vale. Then the bus had passed a section of the industrial sector and over a bridge into a quiet residential area. It was at the other end where the bus stopped at a station at the edge of the central part of town, just over another bridge.

Having gotten off without paying any lien Gray took in his surroundings. The bus station was connected to a bus depot and a Dust station, for filling up on fuel, just a bit further up. The place was somewhat populated with people waiting to board the bus or to get snacks at the attached convenience store. The Dust station was empty though.

Dust lamps lined the street giving it some illumination without making it look dingy, like some bus stations had been along the route from home.

A row of apartment buildings stood across the street from the station. Most of the windows were dark with few lights still on. It really wasn’t all that late yet but Gray supposed that some of the people living there had early shifts tomorrow.

Gray started walking down the sidewalk, not hearing anyone call after him about paying for the ride. With hands in the pockets of his knee length grey and white coat he strolled his way towards the busier part of town. He debated whether or not to raise his hood as he glanced at the people sharing the sidewalk with him. Normal pedestrians, old and young but mostly somewhere in the middle. It was a school night after all.

He decided against wearing the hood. There was a nice breeze tonight. A welcome thing after the musty bus ride.

Among the people walking past, Gray noticed a couple Faunus citizens here and there. Their animal appendages catching his eye. Gray also noticed the mostly hidden looks of distrust some humans had for those Faunus individuals. If it were true that a person's Aura allowed them to feel when someone looked their way, and if looks could harm, then that wolf-eared man would have frostbite for how cold those stares were.

Gray tried not to dwell on such veiled racism though. He kept on walking down the block.

Cars drove by and holographic advertisements flickered on street lamps and billboards. Intercity buses carried people from bus stop to bus stop. Restaurants were in full swing, the smells of fine dining in the air. Night life was waking up.

A group of four people were coming towards Gray now. Four friends enjoying what the evening had to offer. They took up a lot of space on the sidewalk. Gray would have to move to the right, the side nearest the road, if he didn’t want to bump into them.

Instead, he stopped walking and stood still.

Gray looked on curiously as the group approached. Not looking worried in the least. Just curious, as if he was waiting for something.

The group of four men, most likely older students of Beacon Academy or some other maybe less combat-oriented place of learning, came abreast of Gray and–

–parted like a river around a rock.

They didn’t apologize or even look annoyed at the obstacle in their way. They just shuffled around him and met back up on the other side.

For a moment Gray just stood there thinking. A moment later he nodded and went on his way.

You see, Gray was on a mission. Though, it wasn’t anything urgent like most missions. You could say it was more like training, actually.

For the past few years Gray had been training in one of Vale’s junior combat schools in order to attend Beacon Academy. And for that amount of time he still had yet to figure out his Semblance. Which, according to his professors, wasn’t something unheard of for someone who had already unlocked their Aura.

He was no pushover when it came to Aura, either. He was quite proficient at warding off most forward attacks, except for the bluntest and most heavy-handed fighters. Not only that but he was even quite dexterous at using his Aura in more subtle ways. Such as using it to augment the sharpness in his twin daggers, Haze and Murk. Or using it to muffle the sound at his feet or the brushing of his clothes.

And he even came up with more practical, non-combative skills like using Aura to find hand-holds on a vertical surface like a cliff. Or even use Aura along with natural light and shadow to blur the edge of his silhouette in a darkened room.

Of course, one of his professors made the joke that he was more like a hunter than any of his classmates with all those particular skills. Under his breath he had added that Gray was almost like an assassin, too. When Gray thought it through it really did seem like he was developing his skills down a certain path.

That was just as well. It was what he was good at, after all.

This all lead to a recent development a couple days ago.

He had finally discovered his Semblance.

And... It was honestly underwhelming. At first.

How he first used it was quite silly really. He was spending time with a friend after school. This particular friend was more than a little rowdy. And on that lazy afternoon he decided to kick a ball they had found just lying around on a residential street. One kick was too hard, because it hit a wall and bounced off and straight into the window of a parked car. In the blink of an eye the cars alarm sounded off and rowdy friend bolts. Another blink of an eye and the car's owner rushed out of the house that the car was parked next to.

Owner saw Gray and stormed over. Gray barely had time to react to any of what had just happened. He saw the anger on the owner's face and seized up with panic. He knew he was about to get it. His friend had just gotten him into a mess of trouble. However, just as the fuming man got to him, and before he could start to berate Gray his demeanor changed. One second there was a storm of anger on his face, the next... He just... Suddenly he didn’t care.

There wasn’t even a sigh of exasperation before trying to make excuses for a dumb kid who didn’t know any better. He just asked placidly if Gray had done the deed, to which Gray told him no. The man then just nodded as if that solved everything and silently went to turn off the car alarm.

The man then made an effort to take any valuable items out of the car, locked it again and headed back into his house. This left Gray on the sidewalk utterly confused. He looked from the house to the car and back again wondering if perhaps the man would come back out again to follow up in some way. But no. That seemed to be the end of it.

Just as he was about to turn away to head home something caught his eye. He looked down and saw something that made little sense. The blur effect from his trained Aura skill was active on his body. Only, this time there was no shadow over him. He was outside in full daylight.

That hadn’t happened before. Besides, the skill was something he had to make happen. With willpower and practice. It wasn’t something automatic. Although, Aura was the extension of the soul. And the soul was an enigmatic thing at the best of times. So, maybe...

After that incident, other similarly weird moments occurred well into the next day. It was on that Saturday that he started to wonder if perhaps it was a Semblance at work and tried his best to activate it at will. That led to many weird moments at home where his parents would seemingly ignore his presence if he didn’t say anything. Even if he was standing right in front of them. Like, right in their personal space.

He could talk to them and they would respond in a very unbothered sort of way. Then he would try to deactivate whatever he had activated and they would suddenly look at him and his proximity to them. They would ask if he needed anything, to which he would come up with some nonsense answer.

Gray practiced with that newfound ability for the rest of the day. The next day he decided to get in a little combat experience with this weird Semblance by exploring the woods around his small home outside the city. There could be some young and weak creatures of Grimm in the surrounding wilderness that made for good practice for an up and coming Huntsman like him.

Except there was a problem. His Semblance didn’t seem to work on the Grimm. Not like his tried-and-true muffled sound and blur effect in the shadows.

That made him question what the Semblance even did. What was its purpose? How did it work? Those questions led to more analytical ones like, how long could it last? How many could it affect? And for how long?

And the best place to test out the boundaries of this thing was not out in the woods against Grimm that weren’t affected. No, the best place would be where he first used it on a person. The city.

Which leads us back to here. The streets of Vale.

Having amused himself with stopping in front of people to see how they would react, Gray then turned his sights on one of the fancy restaurants along the main road of the shopping district. There was one in particular that had an outdoor seating area up ahead of Gray. Most of the tables were taken up by groups of friends, family and those on dates.

Gray walked by the waiter at the entrance to the outdoor area and didn’t hear any rebuke. Once inside, Gray looked around at all the people enjoying their meals and chatting it up.

His stomach growled at the smell of all the delicious looking food. He instantly knew what he wanted to do.

He walked up to a table where a group of co-workers, three guys and two girls, were seated and chatting about their workplace. Gray approached the table with a little trepidation and kept an eye on the weird Aura effect that came with the Semblance, the subtle blurring at the edges of his body. It was still active. He had kept it active since waking up that morning and all through the training in the woods.

Not once did the Semblance falter or even exhaust him. It seemingly didn’t run out of steam yet. Which was odd considering the number of Semblances he had seen throughout his life. Overuse had some serious effects for most of those Huntsmen and Huntresses. Maybe Gray just had a high limit or something.

While he stood next to the table of co-workers contemplating his plan of attack, none of the diners at the table spared a glance for him. Spying some fries cooked to a crispy golden perfection on one of the plates Gray salivated and reached out to take some.

“–that’s when she looked at the report from accounting.” One of the guys was saying to his fellow male colleagues. “And not once did she notice what the copier was spewing out.”

Even as his hand hovered over one of the women’s plates still no one seemed to care. They just continued chatting about work stories. So Gray took some fries and ate them. They were amazing. Gray gave silent compliments to the chef.

Still no reaction. He took some more but this time he dipped them in some sauce. He ate and moaned appreciatively. Still no one complained. So Gray stood there trying out other foods from their plates. Brazenly stealing food from paying customers while said customers just didn’t seem to care.

“–don’t know why Sinikka is such a hard-ass. You’d think that she’d just had a bad breakup.” One of the girls was saying to the other girl beside her. “Except she’s been like that for the past two years.”

Perhaps Gray should have felt bad about stealing food but he really couldn’t bring himself to care too much. And perhaps he was just having too much fun. And he was hungry, too. He realized that he really didn’t have much to eat today after training in the woods. So, he decided to get a small dinner with these generous folks.

As he was swiping a small strip of chicken his hand briefly made contact with one of the women’s hands. He froze and held his breath, waiting.

“You know, if we could hook her up with someone, do you think she’d soften up?” The second woman asked.

“Yeah, maybe, but if it goes sour, she might come down even harder on us.”

She didn’t notice.

Gray read the woman’s face for a moment, noticing her curly shoulder length brown hair tied in a ponytail. She had adorable matching brown eyes and a mouth that made Gray think some not so pure thoughts.

He absently finished bringing the chicken strip to his lips and ate while contemplating something exciting, yet also a little scary. He chewed thoughtfully as he weighed the moral implications of what he might decide to do. Or what this line of thoughts might lead him to do in the future.

If it was even possible.

It would require a test. A nerve-wracking test.

But first, he reviewed what he knew so far of his Semblance. Firstly, it allowed him to... to... what exactly? Become invisible? No, that’s not quite right. People wouldn’t move out of the way of something invisible. They’d bump into it and wonder what happened. So, what exactly did it do? Make people ignore his existence? It kind of does that, except when his parents responded to his words.

Gray then realized that he didn’t try that yet. To see how people responded when he spoke to them. Perhaps it would be different with people he didn’t know.

“Hello,” He said to the group to start things off.

The group of five looked at him, pausing in their conversations.

“Hi.”

“Hey there.”

“Hello.” Came three replies. The other two just waited to see what Gray wanted.

The switch from being ignored to finally being noticed suddenly made Gray’s anxiety shoot up.

“Um... err, is it okay if I eat some of your food?” He asked, getting a grip on himself. He inwardly cringed at his own question as it just made him look like a beggar bothering them for scraps.

“Sure, that’s fine.”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“Go for it.”

“Course you can.”

“Yeah that’s cool.” All five gave their blessing.

“Thanks.” Gray said simply. So, he could talk to people and they would respond, but they wouldn’t seem upset like they most definitely should be. Whatever effect his Semblance had, it worked just as well with words too.

The group went back to chatting after realizing that Gray had nothing more to say.

Gray stood there and thought again about the scary test he had for the woman whose hand he touched. Even with the evidence he had that his Semblance would protect him from reproach that didn’t stop him from feeling like he was about to do something very wrong.

He eyed the woman and let his gaze travel down her face to her lips. Then down to her neck and onto her chest where her office attire, a black blazer over a white dress shirt, covered a modest rack. The shirt had one button undone, revealing a small bit of her upper chest.

Gray gulped.

What he was about to do made him worse than any food thief, but what other hormonal teen aged boy could resist if they had this Semblance? None that he knew. He’d never met a guy around his own age that was some kind of saint.

Gray was no saint either. He had his fair share of impure moments. A creative person might use an Aura skill like muffled sound or the blurry effect to creep up on an enemy before striking. A creative teenage boy on the other hand might use the same skills to, let’s just say creep into places unseen and unheard for... reconnaissance. Yep, reconnaissance.

So, it wasn’t like he hadn’t done weird things because of the opposite sex. This was just taking it to another level. A level that any boy would be jealous of him reaching.

So, it was with the acknowledgment of his dubious past that he reached out towards the woman. First, he poked her cheek tentatively and waited. She continued to chat with her colleagues, unconcerned that some random boy was standing beside her and poking her. Then he ran his thumb over her moving lips, smiling as he felt their softness, and laughed at the small smooshed face she made as she tried to keep talking.

No reaction.

Gray then lowered his hand to hover over the woman's chest. Slowly and gently he cupped her breast, watching for signs that she noticed, but none came. She didn’t flinch or scream. She just kept on talking to one of the guys across the table from her.

“–you weren’t there that day so you wouldn’t remember, but Odell lost his mind and had a go at Davin in front of the whole office.” She gossiped. “Funniest thing that happened that week.”

There he was, in full view of the public, with his hand cupping a woman's boob. He looked around at all the people enjoying their food and talking among themselves. The wait staff moved around the tables taking orders or delivering food. Pedestrians walked up and down the sidewalk. Traffic whizzed by. And Grays hand was full of tit.

He shuddered with almost unrestrained pleasure at what this could mean for him.

Gray started squeezing the woman's breast with confidence, watching as she just goes about her evening eating with her colleagues. None of whom paid any attention to him. Getting bolder, Gray unbuttoned the top few buttons on the woman's shirt revealing a dark blue bra beneath.

He couldn’t stop himself from grinning as he slid his hand behind the bra to feel the incredibly soft and warm breast underneath.

“Wow...” He breathed to himself. “This is what boobs feel like.”

No one responded of course.

Gray grinned at the unexpected power this Semblance proved to have. At first, he felt very underwhelmed. Next, he felt that it was pretty much a natural progression of his already existing skill set. But now...

He squeezed one last time before pulling his hand out and stared at it. The outline of his hand blended in an odd way with the backdrop.

Now, things were going to get really sexy.